PSYCH 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 24: Fundamental Attribution Error, Cognitive Dissonance, In-Group Favoritism
Adeline Mahoney
Lecture 24- Psychology 100- Social Cognition and Prejudice
Attitudes
○ The tendency to respond positively or negatively toward a certain people, ideas,
objects, or situations
● Affective component
○ Feelings toward an object, person, or situation
● Behavior component
○ Way a person thinks
● Attributing behavior
● Attribution theory
○ We have a tendency to give causal explanations for someone’s behavior
■ Attribute to behavior to one of two things:
● Situational cause
● External factors
○ Dispositional factors- personality or character
● Fundamental Attribution Error
○ The tendency to overestimate the impact of personal disposition and
underestimate the impact of the situations in analyzing the behaviors of others
● Neapolitan & Goethals (1979)
○ People still make FAE, even when aware
Attitudes and Behavior
● Attitudes can affect actions
○ Imperfectly because other factors including the external situation also influence
behavior
● Actions can affect attitudes
Document Summary
Lecture 24- psychology 100- social cognition and prejudice. The tendency to respond positively or negatively toward a certain people, ideas, objects, or situations. Feelings toward an object, person, or situation. We have a tendency to give causal explanations for someone"s behavior. Attribute to behavior to one of two things: The tendency to overestimate the impact of personal disposition and underestimate the impact of the situations in analyzing the behaviors of others. People still make fae, even when aware. Imperfectly because other factors including the external situation also influence behavior. People stand for what they believe in, but they start believing in what they stand for. One explanation is that when our attitudes and actions are opposed, we experience tension. To relieve tension, we bring our attitudes closer to our actions (festinger, In this experiment, one group was paid a dollar, 20, and nothing. They had to repeat a boring task and after they were questioned how much they enjoyed it.
